Big Red Market — Restaurant in Thorold

I'm very sad to have to make this review, but I feel like I need to warn other customers. I have been going to Big Red for a few years now. Within the last 1.5 years, on 3 separate occasions I have purchased meat that has been bad. The first time it was turkey meat from their deli. Purchased on a Sunday, had eaten it Monday and Tuesday and had gotten super sick. Within 2 days the turkey was slimy. I didn't complain, I Just chocked it up as "well, sometimes things happen." A second occasion was chicken. The chicken was purchased and cooked the next day. Later that evening had gotten sick from eating the chicken. Most recently, I had purchased triple mix. Bought on a Friday and was cooked the next day and eaten. I wasn't feeling very well later on that day, but it had passed. The next day I took left overs of what I had made with the triple mix to work and within 2 hours of eating it I felt extremely ill. I went home and was sick the rest of the night. I do want to point out that I do temp my meat when cooking so there is never a chance it is undercooked. I just find it odd that on those 3 occasions I purchased and ate meat from Big Red. I don't think they are going through some of their product fast enough even given how extremely busy they always are! BUT, I do want to say, the staff there is awesome. Very pleasant place to go. Lots of variety of things. Unfortunately, I will not be returning there to buy my meat anymore. It just isn't worth the hit and miss on food that has gone bad and to get...

Well, I guess it was just a matter of time. Got to the checkout today and was asked if I ‘wanted bags’. After shopping here for 20 years, it was jarring.

So many places have gotten so disappointing. I choose Big Red disproportionately often because it’s an oasis in what is otherwise a desert of cold customer service, questionable quality, and nickel & dime practices. I have never felt that at Big Red before today.

Is $0.05 per bag a big expense? Obviously not. I know small business costs are tough right now. But why not make it up elsewhere? Somewhere that doesn’t make your guests experience a disappointing reminder of how bad things have gotten? Even if you go through 1000 bags a day, that’s only $50 in revenue.

Perhaps I’m over reacting. Maybe I’m in a tiny minority, and Big Red will come out on top by collecting that $50/day. All i know is that for me, this is a small step closer to the coldness of national grocery brands, and makes me somewhat less likely to make the special trip to Big Red.

I also question the wisdom of incentivizing people to not only bring the reusable bags of other grocery brands into your store, but also potentially removing your branding from customers homes. Every day i open my closet I see a stack of Big Red bags, because they are used to line my smaller waste bins. No other grocery brand still has this.

All this being said, the staff is always lovely and prompt, freshness is excellent, the store is clean, and the prices are...

Spend hundreds here every month. Their debit was not accepting my card. The girl on cash said it was happening all day. They asked for the manager who was absolutely clueless and had no solution for me to pay. Zero critical thinking skills. Couldn't even apologize was trying to act like it was my lack of funds. I was unable to purchase meat. I ended up leaving and going to another butcher in St. Catharines. What a joke!

EDIT: As you can see the person in charge of their google account is clueless. the cashier did not state the debit machine was "slow" she specifically stated that it had rejected multiple peoples cards all day. Please explain what a SLOW debit machine is LOL other customers DID have issues according to YOUR CASHIER. if you called meridian bank you would have heard that ALL DEBIT ATM AND POINT OF SALE TRANSACTIONS ARE NOT WORKING. so if you put on your thinking cap the ATM WONT WORK EITHER. DUH Nobody Berated the manager. I asked if he had any other solution as he is the person responsible for MANAGING situations. I offered to e transfer as that was working but his brain was too fried to process that. I said NO THANKS THEN and left. how is that berating??? The other butcher shop figured it out in 2 seconds and allowed me to send an e transfer- their manager actually came up with the idea. HORRIBLE CUSTOMER SERVICE!

EVERYONE PLEASE BE ADVISED LOCCOCO'S HAS WAY BETTER QUALITY MEAT AND WAAAAAAYYYYYY BETTER...